Big Tobacco Tries to Take Down Electronic Cigarettes

Sep 11, 2014

Looks like the big bad wolf is running scared! Recently Reynolds American INC. filed an 119-page submission to the FDA requesting a ban on electronic cigarettes. For those who are not familiar with Reynolds, they make very popular cigarette brands such as Camel, Pall Mall, Kools, and, etc. Last year alone they made up 28% of the cigarettes sold in the United States.

In Reynolds’s 119-page cry for help, the submission urges the FDA to ban electronic cigarettes as they would create public health risks. Yes, that’s right a tobacco company that cares about the public health risks. The company that thrives on the addicting nature of cigarettes and continues to sell cigarettes knowing full well the health risks involved with every puff of smoke. The hypocrisy is overwhelming!!!

This, of course, is no surprise at all to the electronic cigarette community. We know that electronic cigarettes are a booming industry. It was estimated at the end of 2013, the E-Cig industry was toppling over 2 billion USD. It is projected to be near 10 billion USD by the end of 2017. Tobacco companies have attempted to enter the market with not much luck. Often times launching products that are well below what many electronic cigarettes users deem as market standards. Reynold’s is actually launching their own electronic cigarette line (yup more hypocrisy) called Vuse. From their website:

“VUSE is the only E-Cigarette that finally delivers a satisfying and great tasting vapor experience combined with consistent and reliable performance.”

Looking at their product line, Vuse is nothing more than a Cig-a-Like style electronic cigarette that has replaceable cartridges. There’s a LED light that glows when you take a pull from the electronic cigarette. Nothing innovative or new about it, except for a few aesthetic details which won’t really improve the quality of the vapor production or taste. Now Vuse is only limited to tobacco and menthol flavors unlike most other electronic cigarettes; which leads to Reynolds’s next point on how flavored electronic cigarettes attract the youth. They even mention that most E-Liquids are sold with no child protective caps. Let’s stop right here. Every single reputable vendor (including Vape Mate) I’ve ever purchased from makes it a point to use child protective caps. In fact only do they use child protective caps, they also have warning labels with nicotine warnings as well as a blurb about keeping it away from children. I imagine only a small percentage are not bothering to use child protective caps.

As far as the sweet and fruity flavorings being appealing to children; children are not the only ones that are appealed to sweet and fruity E-Liquids. In fact, I use sweet and fruity E-Liquids exclusively as I hate tobacco flavors because it reminds me of cigarettes! To say just because it is sweet and fruity and it appeals to children should not be a valid argument (but it is one they love to use). They make sweet and fruity liquor, sweet and fruity condoms, sweet and fruity dishwashing liquid, sweet and fruity bleach (yes I was surprised at this myself), and, etc. Are all these items created to market directly to children? No! These are adult only products being marketed to adults. If children are digging into the liquor cabinet because they are trying to make a drink after a long day at school, then perhaps better parenting should be questioned rather than to blame the market.